Coinstar earnings

Coinstar's fourth-quarter profit fell 27 percent due to poor performance at its new ventures. It forecast disappointing earnings ahead, and its shares tumbled in after-hours trading Thursday. The company owns the Redbox DVD kiosks and its namesake coin-counting sites.

There's trouble brewing at Redbox: President Mitch Lowe has announced his resignation, and parent company Coinstar revised its second-quarter revenue outlook downward last week. Here are some key signs consumers and investors should watch to see if the Redbox business model (i.e. kiosk rental machines) is obsolete.

Will the stubbornly high unemployment rate fall at all? We'll find out whether when the January employment reports come out this week. Also worth watching for are a host of earnings reports, led by economic bellwhether UPS. The package deliverer is expected to post strong results.